Valencia tennis: Doubles dominance

Boys tennis: Valencia tops a shorthanded Thousand Oaks squad

The Valencia boys tennis team took advantage of a less-than-full-strength Thousand Oaks High squad and notched a 14-4 win in the middle of a three-game home stretch at Valencia High on Wednesday.

The Vikings' doubles pairs, led by the No. 1 team Dalton Ullman and Tayven Townsend, didn't drop a set as Valencia earned all nine available set points.

Ullman and Townsend's performance follows a three-set sweep the duo earned in a 14-4 win over Eagle Rock on Monday.

The wind was again a great equalizer, as both teams struggled with lobs and were forced to be careful on rallies.

Townsend, a lefty, and Ullman, a righty, said the key to picking up points in the weather was moving in cohesion, most of which can be attributed to the pair's chemistry.

"Breaking the serve was big," Ullman said. "You normally move your feet a lot, but it's twice as much with the wind. You have to move so much."

Ullman and Townsend won 6-0, 6-1 and 6-1 over the Lancers' No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 teams, respectively, on Wednesday.

While the doubles pairs were dominant, the singles struggled a little bit for Valencia (4-1), despite the fact that Thousand Oaks was missing its No. 1 singles player, Marcos Giron, and several others, according to Lancers head coach Dave Assorson.

The Lancers (2-1) also graduated four players to NCAA Division-I programs, including Washington and Stanford, from last year's CIF-Southern Section Division I championship team, Assorson said.

"I figured with six guys missing, I didn't think we had a chance against Valencia," Assorson said. "We just wanted to come out and get some of the other guys a chance to play. I know Valencia's got a good team, and if you're not at full strength, you're not going to beat them."

Thousand Oaks' No. 1 singles player on Wednesday, Brendon Josephson, did an admirable job replacing Giron, picking up all three sets, including a 7-5 tiebreaker over Valencia's No. 1 Tyler Gottshall, a 6-2 win over No. 2 Ben Inchalik and a 6-0 win over J.R Macalutas.

Macalutas and Gottshall both picked up their other two sets, 6-1, 6-2 and 6-2, 6-3, respectively.

"It's hard," Inchalik said, of playing in the wind. "You have to move your feet a lot, and anyone can take a set off of anyone. You have to really focus on your serve."

Ultimately, Vikings head coach Annie Kellogg couldn't complain about the final result and the team's second win in as many games this week.

"If you don't have your horses, then you don't have your horses," said Kellogg of the Lancers' squad. "But a win's a win, and we'll take it. ... Hopefully we can build momentum off of this, and that will help carry us (today)."